Horgan has enjoyed huge critical success with her Channel 4 show, which she co-wrote with American comedian Rob Delaney, about a woman who gets pregnant after a one-night stand.

It has been nominated for Baftas, an Emmy and a Critics' Choice Award and has been well received in the US, where it streams on Amazon, but Horgan said it does not mean she can make whatever she likes as a result.

In a conversation with Frankie Boyle at the Edinburgh international TV Festival, she said: "P eople are nicer to me, I get more meetings, but it's chat until you make something else.

"It's great to have a show that does well, but doesn't make me relax."

While it has been well reviewed, Catastrophe has not drawn huge audiences and Horgan said she does not understand why.

She said: "I don't know why more people don't watch it, I would like to strap a load of people down and say 'Have you tried this? It's got a big smiley American and lots of sex!'

"It's not family viewing though, the thing that gets bums on seats is something a family can watch together."

Horgan also revealed the disappointment she felt when her sitcom Pulling was not recommissioned after the second series.

She said: " Pulling was nominated for two Baftas, we did two series and then we were not recommissioned and we were annoyed. They didn't commit to a third but said they would give us a special to finish it, we were kind of gutted."

The comedy about the complicated love lives of three single women ran from 2006 to 2008

Horgan's new show Divorce, which stars Sarah Jessica Parker, will begin on Sky Atlantic in October.